Thursday, March 10, 2016

PI Update: Remembering The Former No. 1 Bridge

Return with us one more time to beautiful Pleasure Island. Remembering the "Great Sign"!

My recent update on the five Pleasure Island permanent bridges made mention of the "twin bridges" that used to make up Bridge No. 1 from Marketplace to the Island. So I checked the official Blog archives for photos.

Looking back to 2010, this was actually a triple bridge complex!

There were two truss bridges on each side of the main span.

I think the side spans saw limited use and they decided to eliminate them.

During the Island's gated era, a ticket booth existed over this bridge on the far left. You could get to the two restaurants on the other side, but beyond that at night, you needed a PI ticket.

By the fall of 2010 the two truss bridges were removed and one new wide deck installed that covered the entire span.

Nearing completion.

And that's what we have today. Kiosks on both sides were creating a pedestrian bottleneck at peak times so they are now only on one side of the bridge.